61. The Thing In Question

To express the whole truth is no easy matter. It means releasing myself from whatever intentions I might have about what is right and good. It means following the grooves of my past experience — grooves unknown to words but deeply felt. It means listening carefully to the intuitions that arise from my present awareness of myself and the world.

Where my awareness is strong, I am likely to discover that my words are able to say more than they literally say. They seem to point at something beyond, a truth or a beauty that has no name and cannot be talked about directly. Something that simply is. If I try to talk about it, if I try to use words to pin this nameless thing down, I will not be able to capture it.

And this means it can be a real challenge to keep my words honest. To be honest about what resides beyond words while still using words means I must refrain from trying to force language to do what it cannot do. I should not attempt to define what lies beyond. I have to recognize that there are limits to my language. At the same time, I have to allow for the possibility that my words will express something that somehow exceeds these limits.

To do this, I embrace metaphor in all its forms. I recognize that clear language is not always the most expressive language. I accept that I am sometimes more honest when I try to point to the truth through indirect images and gestures, rather than trying to state it outright using rigorous logic and detail.

All of this is difficult because there is an overwhelming inclination to use language to just say the thing. Language is a practical tool at heart, and it wants to be used practically. But the thing in question cannot be said, for it is not even a thing. All I can do is show what I see with as much openness and honesty as possible, and then what cannot be named might somehow reveal itself.